Russian drone strike ‘most serious security incident’ in Romania since start of Ukraine war – Europe live

Romanian president leads outrage after drone hits apartment block near border with Ukraine

The incident comes just days after the Czech president, Petr Pavel, has urged Nato to “show its teeth” in response to Russia’s repeated testing of the alliance’s resolve on its eastern flank, suggesting a range of options including switching off its internet, cutting off its banks from global financial systems and shooting down jets that violate allied airspace.

Speaking to the Guardian in Prague last week, Pavel called for “decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric” responses to counter Moscow’s provocative behaviour against the alliance or risk the Kremlin intensifying its actions.

Continue reading...

Burberry boss could earn up to £12.2m under new bonus scheme as company rolls back climate goals

Company, which paid boss Joshua Schulman £4m in year to March, becomes latest to extend deadline to become carbon neutral

The boss of Burberry could earn up to £12.2m after the luxury British brand introduced a new bonus scheme, while its annual report also revealed the company has scaled back its climate ambitions.

Joshua Schulman, a former chief executive of the US fashion brand Coach who was hired in July 2024 to help revive Burberry, was paid £4m in the year to March, up from £2.5m for his first nine months in the job.

Continue reading...

‘Hidden datacentre tax’ costing Irish households millions, report says

Datacentres used 22% of country’s electricity last year, pushing up household bills, study suggests

Energy demand by datacentres in Ireland has added hundreds of euros to household electricity bills in a pattern that could be replicated across Europe, according to a report.

Ireland’s growing number of datacentres last year used 22% of the country’s electricity, more than all urban homes combined, according to the Central Statistics Office. The equivalent figure in the US and UK is 6%.

Continue reading...

EU fines Temu for failing to stop sale of illegal and dangerous products

European Commission finds shoppers on Chinese website very likely to find unsafe items and imposes €200m penalty

EU regulators have fined the Chinese shopping website Temu €200m (£173m) for failing to stop the sale of illegal and dangerous products.

The European Commission imposed the penalty after a 19-month investigation that found consumers were very likely to encounter illegal or unsafe products including baby toys and electronics on the firm’s website.

Continue reading...

Feeding the future of France: Rollout of €1 meals an attempt to help struggling students

It’s a thumbs up from the country’s 3 million students, who can now buy cheap meals up to twice a day

Where in France can you get a nutritious and balanced three-course meal for €1?

If you are one of the country’s estimated 3 million students in higher education, the answer is: the university restaurant or cafe.

Continue reading...

Nearly half a million Russians killed in Ukraine war, UK spy chief says

Anne Keast-Butler says Russian forces are ‘going backwards on the battlefield’ for first time since late 2022

Nearly half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion more than four years ago, according to a new estimate from the head of the British spy agency GCHQ.

Anne Keast-Butler, the chief of the electronic intelligence agency, said in her first speech in the job that Russian forces were “going backwards on the battlefield” inside Ukraine for the first time since late 2022.

Continue reading...

Brexiters peddled ‘nationalistic pish’, said Reform UK’s Makerfield candidate

Robert Kenyon castigated Brexit as an economically self-harming project on rugby league forum in 2016

Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield byelection has castigated Brexit as an economically self-harming project promoted by politicians who “peddled the nationalistic pish”, raising more doubts about his commitment to Nigel Farage’s signature achievement.

The comments by Robert Kenyon, unearthed on a defunct rugby league forum and first reported by the Telegraph, follow the emergence of another post in which he said people would be wrong to assume he had voted for Brexit.

Continue reading...

‘Put an end to this war’: Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev makes new plea to Putin

After winning the Grand Prix at Cannes film festival, the exiled auteur sent a direct message to the Russian president urging him to stop the war

Accoladed director Andrey Zvyagintsev has sent a direct message to Vladimir Putin urging him to start listening to the Russian people and end the “senseless” war in Ukraine, continuing a war of words between Russia’s most revered living film-maker and the Kremlin that started at the Cannes film festival awards ceremony over the weekend.

“Except for the limbs torn off from your fellow citizens in the name of an illusory goal, except for the massacre of young people that the country needs to build life and the future – nothing good is on the horizon if we don’t stop,” the exiled auteur said in a message sent to the Russian president’s press secretary through official channels on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Seven heat-related deaths in France as May records set in several countries

Extreme early summer event across western Europe also brings highest temperatures for month in UK and Ireland

Seven people have died in France in an extreme early summer heat event affecting a swathe of western Europe, with record high temperatures for May recorded for a second day in several countries.

In France, which logged its hottest ever May day on Monday and again on Tuesday, the weather agency Météo France said the heatwave could last through the week and predicted temperatures could reach 39C in some areas.

Continue reading...

Turkish police fire teargas to break up protest after opposition leader ousted

Water cannon also used at rally called by Özgür Özel days after court dismissed him as CHP leader

Riot police in Turkey have fired teargas and water cannon to break up a rally called by the ousted opposition leader Özgür Özel days after a court dismissed him from office.

On Sunday, riot police had battered their way into the main opposition CHP’s headquarters in the capital, Ankara, firing teargas and beating party members before throwing them out, Özel said.

Continue reading...

Italy’s top court rules against tourist refused tap water in Dolomites hotel

Woman argued water was a ‘universal human right’ but court ruled no law obliged hoteliers to serve it from taps

A tourist’s simple request for a glass of tap water at a hotel restaurant in the Italian Dolomites has culminated in Italy’s top court ruling that being served water from the tap is not consumer right, after a lengthy and costly legal saga.

The case dates back to 2019, when the woman spent a week at the five-star hotel in the ski resort of Corvara, in Badia, over Christmas and New Year. She was on a half-board deal with the evening meal included, except for drinks.

Continue reading...

Czech police release Russian bishop after ‘white powder’ found in his car

Russia says arrest of Bishop Hilarion, who heads Orthodox congregation in Karlovy Vary, was politically motivated ‘setup’

Czech police have released a Russian Orthodox bishop who was detained on suspicion of drug possession, after Moscow condemned the arrest as a politically motivated setup.

Bishop Hilarion, also known by his secular name, Grigory Alfeyev, was stopped by police on Sunday in Karlovy Vary, a spa town in western Czechia popular with Russian tourists, after officers discovered containers of a white substance in the boot of his car.

Continue reading...

Spain blocks access to Polymarket and Kalshi as it launches gambling licence investigation

Prediction sites, which allow bets on all topics from weather to politics, may be in breach of country’s rules

Spain’s ministry of consumer rights has blocked access to Polymarket and Kalshi while it investigates whether the leading prediction market sites are violating Spanish law by operating without a gambling licence.

On Tuesday the ministry said it had launched disciplinary proceedings against the two platforms, which allow users to bet on everything from the weather to political events, amid allegations that they lacked the “necessary administrative authorisation” to operate in Spain.

Continue reading...

Four people killed in Belgium in train and school bus collision

Two children among dead after incident at level crossing near town of Buggenhout in Flanders

An investigation is under way after four people, including two children, were killed when a school minibus collided with a train in northern Belgium.

Five children were injured in the crash at a level crossing near the small town of Buggenhout in Flanders on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Record May highs sweep across France as extreme heat hits western Europe

Mercury in Spain also climbs to well above normal with weather event set to continue for several more days

More than 350 French towns have recorded their highest-ever temperatures for May as France and the UK set national heat records amid an extreme early-summer heat event that could see the mercury rise to 40C in parts of Spain by the end of the week.

The UK’s Met Office said the country’s all-time record for May was broken when a temperature of 34.8C was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens.

Continue reading...

Far-right Elam party inspired by Golden Dawn makes gains in Cyprus election

Strongly anti-Turkish party doubles its seats although mainstream parties did not see vote crumble as predicted

An anti-immigrant far-right party, inspired by Greece’s defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, made the biggest gains in Sunday’s parliamentary election in Cyprus.

Elam, the Greek National People’s Front, which has pushed for the closure of checkpoints on the ethnically split island and is vociferously anti-Turkish, doubled its seats in the 56-member legislature after securing 10.9 % of the vote.

Continue reading...

Oil prices fall below $100 a barrel on hopes of Iran peace deal

Brent crude futures down 6% to lowest level in two weeks and stock markets rise

Oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Monday and stock markets rose on hopes that the US and Iran are inching closer to a peace deal.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were down 6% to $97.43 a barrel, the lowest level in two weeks, with hopes that an agreement to end the near three-month US-Israeli war on Iran can be struck.

Continue reading...

UK records its hottest ever day in May as temperature hits 34.8C

Scientists say record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate crisis is affecting lives

The fierce heat sweeping across Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with scorching highs of close to 35C.

A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at Heathrow airport on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Office, beating the previous May record that was set in 1922 and reached again in 1944. Later in the afternoon a temperature of 34.8C was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens.

Continue reading...

Trump Tower in Georgia to be built on land part-owned by son of US sanctions-hit leader

Links between Trump Organization and Ivanishvili family for Tbilisi skyscraper raise new conflict of interest concerns

A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records.

The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu.

Continue reading...

Rare Rubens notebook sheet goes on display in artist’s home city of Antwerp

Double-sided page featuring a sketch and text sheds new light on the baroque master and his time living in Rome

More than 400 years ago, the up and coming Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens toured the streets of Rome, notebook in hand, sketching images from Renaissance works adorning the city’s churches and palazzos.

Now a rare sheet, thought to be from his Roman sketchbook, has gone on display in his home city of Antwerp, shedding new light on the baroque master.

Continue reading...